August 21 -- Feast of Brunon Zembol and Ladislaus Findysz

Sometimes, you begin to read a story and figure you know how it goes. Today's a good day for reminding myself that patterns may be familiar, but variations are common and should be noted. In fact, as the patterns become more familiar, the variations become more important.

For example, if I say, "Brunon Zembol was born in Letownia, Malopolskie, Poland in 1905," you probably think "I'll bet he was killed in the Holocaust." If I add that he became a Franciscan friar in 1922, your hypothesis will be strengthened. Then I'll note that he was arrested by the Nazis in 1939, bounced around from one camp to another, and finally sent to Dachau. Ahh, you say, who could have survived Dachau from 1939 until the war's end? And you're right: he was beaten to death there in 1942.

Let's play again. Ladislaus Findysz was born on December 13, 1907 in Kroscienko, Poland. Ahh, you say, I can see where this is going -- straight to Dachau. Then I note that he was ordained in 1932, and the certainty increases. But that's because you and I don't know Polish geography very well. Krosno is way out there in the southeast -- far from the German border. In fact his postings as a parish priest were in places that are now within the borders of the Ukraine.

YOU: Okay, but when the Germans invaded, they pushed all the way through Poland and into the Ukraine. He may not have wound up at Dachau, but he still went to one of the camps, right? Auschwitz? Janowska? Majdenak? Belzec?

ME: True, the town was cleared by the Germans when they were retreating in 1944 (after they had conquered and occupied the area in 1942), but though Ladislaus and his parish were displaced, they weren't killed. He went back to the town in 1945 to help rebuild.

YOU: Aha! So the Communists got him instead, right? He's one of the guys who escaped Hitler's camps only to wind up in Stalin's prisons.

ME: Good thinking. He was certainly under surveillance and messed with. He was ordered to stop teaching the catechism. He was even kicked out of the area. He exhorted his parishioners to resist the atheism of Communism, and was in turn accused of forcing religion on others. They busted him on this charge in 1963, held a show trial, and sentenced him to thirty months. Of course, thirty months in a Soviet prison was often a death sentence, especially for political prisoners like priests.

YOU: He was killed in prison, right? Starved to death? Beaten by fellow prisoners at the behest of the prison officials?

ME: Well, not exactly. He was diagnosed with esophageal cancer but not treated for a while. Then he was released, but it was too late. The tumor was inoperable and he died in 1964.


Illustrations: Ladislaus, having lived into his fifties, is on the right. Brunon is on the left.